In this solo presentation, Donna Brown defines Business Design as the practice of creating a long‑term, obstacle‑free vision and detailed roadmap for a business. She explains that, unlike typical coaching which focuses on short‑term goals, Business Design encourages entrepreneurs to imagine the ultimate, mature version of their company—what products, retreats, digital programs, certifications, or masterminds they could eventually offer—without limiting themselves by time constraints. By mapping out all current and potential offers, hidden gaps and untapped revenue pockets become visible, leading to a more complete client experience. The process also serves as a brain‑dump, turning scattered ideas into a clear, documented architecture that can be revisited and expanded as new concepts arise. Donna uses a road‑trip analogy to illustrate planning the destination, route, and mode of travel, emphasizing that this expansive planning brings clarity, strategic direction, and the ability to make informed short‑, mid‑, and long‑term decisions.
Chapters
Business design. What even is that, right? To me, business design is actually taking the time to create a vision and a big expansive roadmap to design out your business to what it could become with no obstacles. Everything goes well. There are no none of that. You don't have to think of the how. You just what is it that I could do and Oh, if I did this, then I could offer them that. And then I would love to do some retreats. And oh, once I've done a couple of retreats, maybe I could do a series of retreats and people sign up actually for a series of retreats. Or maybe I'm, you know, from— I'm going to launch this huge digital program, or I'm going to, you know, move into certification so other people can replicate this, this, the system that I have, because I know it's so powerful. And it's that long-term vision. That will really, really, really help you decide what to do now, midterm and short-term, right? So we're a lot— most coaching will really just look at the next few months, possibly the next year, or just the time that you spend together, which is great and fine and it needs to be done. And I set objectives and my clients set objectives together, but it's important, I feel, to put it in the context of this big Amazing vision of what you could become and what and who you are. So it's kind of like taking a road trip. When you decide that you want to go on a trip, you decide first of all where you're going to go. So where are we going? For some reason I always end up Paris, maybe because both my kids are studying in Paris right now. But so I'm gonna decide, okay, am I going to drive? Am I going to take the train? I live in Italy, so like that's possible. So am I going to drive? Am I going to take the train? Am I going to go by myself? Am I going to fly? Am I going to fly first class? I'm going to fly, you know, low cost. Once I start, when am I going? How long am I staying? You see that how the direction we take it for granted, right? When you decide we're going out for dinner and a movie, or we're going to go on a trip, or we're going to go on a vacation, we go through this process of choosing and dreaming of what it is we want, and then sort of integrating it into the amount of time we have available, the resources we have available, etc. Think of what would happen if for your business you took the time to plan out where it is that you could go with all of this over time without putting a time limit on it. There's no time. It's just a flow, a flow and an architecture or roadmap of what your business could become. When you look at that, you get more ideas. You get more ideas. Even going back to some products, I found this again and again that you'll actually notice that there are gaps in your own offers, that there are sort of these pockets, interesting pockets of earning that you can have that are that are unexplored, that you kind of went walked right by because you were in a rush or you were focusing on something else. So you didn't even notice that that possibility was there, and your clients may love that. And that has happened again and again with my. The people that I've worked with, they found something that's like, oh wow, I could be doing this as well, and adding that to their— what— to what they're doing. So it's completing and giving your, your people a more, uh, a more well-rounded experience, let's put it that way, a more complete experience with you. So think of Business Design as something that will bring you clarity. It's also a great brain dump. You know how we have all these amazing ideas and then everything kind of goes all mushy in our heads and we can't keep them sorted and we have all these email funnels to write and then upsells and downsells and this and that and all these other different things and those are so— well, they help. I was talking about clarity. I don't know if you've seen that video yet but clarity is a big thing. They take away from our clarity so they're holding up like real estate in our mind while we're trying to remember these things and trying to fit them in these pieces. By drawing it all out and designing out and mapping out what is— what your business could look like as a full-blown mature business, it gives you the possibility to also let go of them because you know you've got it on paper, you've got a digital format of it, and that it's not going to be forgotten. And as new ideas come to you, you can go back and Maybe you had an idea that was a generic idea and then you get a very specific idea. So let's say you're going to hold a mastermind and now you've decided that it's going to be 3 months and it's going to have certain characteristics and you can put that in. So your business, it can be both visionary, but also as you fill in the blanks of what you're actually creating, it will show you where, you know, sort of where it would be interesting for you and for your clients together to go next. So if having your mind full of ideas and not having a very clear idea of where you're all going, where you're going with everything that you're doing, and you can't really see how everything's fitting together, give business design a whirl and let me know what you think. I'm Donna Brown, business designer, and this is the Business Design Studio.
